371 pages ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references

Introduction -- The historical setting -- The Iranians -- The Medes -- The Persians and the First Persian Empire -- Maccedonian and Parthian Interregnum -- The Sassanian or Second Perian Empire -- The Parsees -- Sources and tradition -- The Avesta -- The inscriptions -- The Pahlavi books -- Difficulties and interpretation -- Part I: dawn -- 1. The prophet -- His place and date -- The economic and political background -- Truth and the lie -- The traditional religion -- Free will -- The two spirits -- Zoroaster and his god -- The bounteous immortals -- God and the two spirits -- The two spirits in the dead sea scrolls -- The holiness of God -- God, the sole Creator -- Post mortem judgment -- Heaven and Hell -- Influence on Judaism -- The "second existence" -- Summary of doctrine -- 2. The seven chapters -- Devine beings beside God -- The wives of Ahura Mazdah -- The old religion -- Ahura and Varuna -- Mithra -- The "persevers-creators': Ahura and Mithra -- The nature of Zoroaster's reform -- Prototype of the Holy Spirit -- Changed tone of the seven chapters -- Veneration of material things -- Minor prophets -- Haoma -- 3. The cultus -- The Yasna -- The Yashts -- The Videvdat -- The three forms of Zoroastrianism -- The fourfold confession of faith -- Ahuras and Daevas -- Zoroaster and animal sacrifice -- Sacrificial bull and Haoma rite -- Haoma, the drink of immortality of the Indo-Iranaians -- Haoma, as sacrifice and sacrament -- the Liturgy -- Origins of the cult -- Haoma, victim, priest, and god -- Sraosha -- Sraosha the mediator -- 4. Mithra -- The Yashts -- Iranian Mithra and Roman Mithras -- The Pre-Zoroastrain Mithra -- Mithra, compact and warlord -- Mithra and Indra -- The Daeva-worshippers and Mithra -- The separation of Mithra from Ahura -- Analysis of Mithra Yasht -- Mirthra as contract and king -- Mithra as terrible warlord -- Mithra as light -- Mithra, Sraosha, and Rashnu -- Mithra's heavenly house -- Mithra's plaint to the wise lord -- Mithra's descent to earth -- Haoma consecrates himself Mithra's priest -- Mithra initiated into the 'good religion' -- Ahura and Mithra reunited -- Mithra and the Holy Spirit -- The revised cult of Ahura and Mithra -- 5. Mithra-Yima-Mithras -- The Daevas and their worshippers -- The Daeva-worshippers and Mithra -- Roman Mithras and his immolation of the bull -- Yima and the bull-sacrifice -- Ahriman's slaughter of the bull -- Bull-sacrifice at the end of time -- Ahriman-Areimanios in the Mithraic mysteries -- The bull-sacrifice of man's first parents -- Yima again -- The Vedic Yama -- The Avestan Yima -- Yima's golden reign -- His subterranean paradise -- Yima and the sun -- Zoroaster and Yima -- Yima's "lie" -- Yima, Mithra's twin -- Noruz and Mihragan -- Yima the Prototype of Ahriman? -- Yima and Mithra in the Avesta -- Cautes and Cautopates in the Mithraic mysteries -- Conclusion -- 6. Fravashi-Vayu-Khwarenah -- Ahura Mazdah's Veneration of other deities -- The Fravashis -- Vayu -- Vayu and Zurvan -- The Khwarenah -- 7. Achaemenids and magi -- Primitive and "Caltholic" Zoroastrianism -- The god of Darius the great -- The "Zoroastrianism" of Darius -- The Daiva-Inscription of Xerxes -- Xerxes' "un-Zoroastrianism" of Darius -- Artaxerxes II and III -- The Magi -- Zoroaster and the Magi -- Magavan -- Popular religion in Western Iran -- Zoroastrianism and the popular cults -- The religion described by Strabo -- decline and fall of "Catholic" Zoroastrianism

Part II: twilight -- 8. In search of an orthodoxy -- Revival of Zoroastrianism by the Sassanians -- In search of an orthodoxy -- Three sects -- The "mazdean" dualists -- The "monotheists" -- The Zurvanites -- Zurvanism predominant in the third century AD -- The eclecticism of Shapur I -- The high priest Karter and the "Zandiks" -- Aturpat and the "Fatalists" -- The Zurvanism of Yezdigird II and his grand Vizier -- The synthesis of Khusraw I -- Study of Indian and Greek works -- The second decline and final fall of Zoroastrianism -- 9. The varieties of Zurvanism -- the Pahlavi books -- Priestly brothers: Manushchihr and Zatspram -- The influx of Greek and Indian ideas -- The "Zandiks" and "Dahris" -- "Classical" and materialist Zurvanism -- The Zandik ontology and metaphysics -- Menok and Geteh -- Creative evolution -- The dualist interpretation of evolution -- A Zurvanite view of evolution -- The three types of Zurvanism -- Zurvanite fatalism -- "Classical" Zurvanism -- The Zurvanite myth -- Zurvan and the pact between Ohrmazd and Ahriman -- 10. Classical Zurvanism -- Zurvan, the one and the many -- Zurvan'd doubt -- Ohrmazd and Ahriman in Mythological Zurvanism -- Main differences between Zurvanism and Orthodoxy -- Aberrant versions of the Zurvanite myth -- The sect of Gayomart -- The four elements and their prototypes -- Infinite and finite -- Emergence of the finite from the infinite -- The emergence of consciousness and the Genesis of evil -- The changelessness of created being -- Az, the weapon of concupiscence -- The "endless form" or Macrocosm -- The Zurvanite and the Manichean Az -- Az, a borrowing from Buddhism? -- Essential "Zoroastrianism" of classical Zurvanism -- The gender of sex of Az -- The wickedness of the female -- The defection of woman to Ahriman -- The defilement of man by women -- 11. Zurvan -- The sevenfold Zurvan -- Macrocosm and Microcosm -- Zurvan, the god of fate -- The god of death -- The god of the resurrection -- The fatalism of Firdausi's epic -- The orthodox attitude to fate -- Man's response to fate -- Orthodoxy's reaction to the three types of Zurvanism -- 12. Ohrmazd and Ahriman -- The orthodox cosmogony -- finite and infinite in the orthodox account -- The nature of god -- The first creation -- Ahriman's reaction -- The weapon of Ohrmazd and Ahriman -- The limiting of time -- The perdurance of Ohrmazd's creation -- Ohrmazd's instrument, the endless form -- Ahriman's instrument, concupiscence -- Zurvanite origin of these "instruments" -- Creation of truth and falsehood -- Ohrmazd's offer of peace -- Ahriman laid low -- Creation of the bounteous immortals and their demonic counterparts -- The material creation -- The Heavenly sphere of Macrocosm -- A variation derived from India -- Man the microcosm -- Man's fravashis consent to descend to earth -- Ahriman's revival and assault against the material world -- The fall of man -- 13. Man -- Ahriman imprisoned in the material world -- The re-creation of plant and animal life and of man: man's second fall -- soul and body -- body, vital spirit, soul, image, and external soul -- The Gravashi or external soul -- Essential goodness of man -- The soul's free will -- soul and reason -- Relationship of soul to body -- Concupiscence, the enemy of soul and body alike -- The interconnexion of bodily health and virtue -- Primacy of spirit over matter -- Moderation in all things -- Self-love the foundation of all love -- The solidarity of mankind -- The indwelling of the good mind -- Contemplation and action -- 14. The religion and the king -- The interconnexion of the Zoroastrian religion and the Sassanian Empire -- The doctrine of the mean -- The mean as cosmic principle -- The mean as the treaty between Ohrmazd and Ahriman -- The mean, the essence of reason -- Virtue, the mean between contrary vices -- Wisdom or reason in man and God -- Wisdom as creative principle -- Ahriman's lack of wisdom and reason -- Concupiscence, the misuse of reason and desire -- Man's Khwarr (Khwarenha) and concupiscence -- The good religion in essence and manifestation -- Religion and royalty -- The function of royalty -- Royalty the material complement of the good religion -- The virtues of kings -- Royalty the bond between god and man -- 15. The end -- The soul's fate at death -- The nature of the discarnate soul -- Heaven -- Hell -- The Frashkart or final rehabilitation -- Ohrmazd's master-plan for the overthrow of evil -- The three phases of Ohrmazd's plan -- The beginning of the end -- The destruction of Az and Ahriman (Zurvanite version) -- The meaning of Ahriman's destruction -- The disintegration of evil (Orthodox version) -- The resurrection of the body -- The role of Saoshyans and the final bull-sacrifice -- Purgation by molten metal -- The "final body" and renewal of all things -- The marriage of matter and spirit

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews